Solomon: That McHale guy is pretty good isn’t he?

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After the Rockets’ impressive grind-it-out win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the best team in the Western Conference, those who said Kevin McHale would be a pretty darn good coach could say “I told you so.” If they are so inclined.

I’m more of an “I informed you thusly,” kinda guy.

I am getting this out there now, even though I expect the Rockets to not be much better than they are and to end the year at the bottom of the playoff heap – seventh or eighth seed at best.

The point is McHale is so much better than so many of you thought he would be when he was hired.

The most impressive thing about McHale is that he isn’t exactly a players’ coach, despite having been a player.

He is so old school, so matter-of-fact, that he is more like a cool grandfather, though he isn’t at all old, who is fun to have around, but doesn’t allow you to get away with anything.

Players like him, but they know they can’t cut any corners and he keeps them on edge with biting comments and an aversion to excuses.

The latter might be what impresses me the most about McHale.

Before the season he said making the playoffs was the absolute goal. No excuses.

He didn’t care that because of the lockout he didn’t have an offseason to work with the players, that the team didn’t have a full training camp or preseason, or that the NBA would try to squeeze 66 games in 67 days (it seems that way, doesn’t it?).

All McHale ever said about it was, “You gotta go play.”

When it was time for a back-to-back-to-back, all McHale said was “You gotta go play.”

When it was time for a long West Coast road trip that ended with a stop in Memphis on the way home and then had a home game tacked onto a back-to-back, virtually making that the seventh game of the trip, all McHale said was “You gotta go play.”

He figured he hired a great staff that would help him get his squad to play the right way and if it played the right way, there was no reason that this team shouldn’t be a playoff team. Period.

Even with tonight’s sellout, it doesn’t feel like these Rockets are getting much attention yet, and I don’t get it. At this point, I would assume they are exceeding most of your expectations.

They aren’t exceeding McHale’s. He would tell you they haven’t come close to delivering what he expects from them.

You aren’t likely to hear a “woe is me,” from him, and hnd he isn’t going to listen to “woe is me” from his players.

When Kevin Martin decided to whine about playing time, McHale basically told him to play better and he would play more. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

It’s not all business, but it is all basketball.

One player told me that the team respects McHale as the head coach and the man in charge, but as if that isn’t enough, McHale regularly hits them with the idea that he knows what it takes to be a champion and they don’t.

McHale’s signature line might be, “When you are the coach of a team you can do it your way,” but not far behind that are his regular reminders that he has been on some of the best teams off all-time and he has seen the best of the best do what they do.

“He can be brutal,” the player said. And then he laughed. That’s a good sign. Good players are not bothered when great ones tell them how it is done.

McHale was a great player.

Will he be a great coach? Don’t know, but about 30 games into his first full season, he is already a pretty good one.